THE PERMANENT closure of roads by St James’s Hospital Dublin could be in conflict with a public right of way, Dublin City Council has said.
The hospital took the decision to close access through its grounds from the Rialto gate “unilaterally without any consultation”, the council has said.
The access road was closed during the security operations for the visits of Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama last May and the hospital has decided not to reopen it.
A spokesman for the hospital said the roads through its grounds were being used as a “rat run” by traffic which had no business in the hospital. Traffic congestion had become so bad that ambulances were being impeded from reaching the emergency department and patients and visitors were unable to leave the underground car park.
The hospital had no plans to reopen the Rialto gate to traffic, the spokesman said.
“Access from the Rialto gate is closed to non-emergency vehicles but the St James’s gate remains open, so there is no issue of access to hospital grounds. The system has shown to be working well so we intend to keep it in place.”
The council said its traffic department had received complaints about congestion caused by the closure. “The roads in question are private roads. However, Dublin City Council believes that there is a public right of way on these roads.”
The hospital had received no such complaints, its spokesman said. “If the council feels there is a right of way issue, that is something it can formally raise with the hospital directly.”
The spokesman stressed that the gate closure was “entirely separate” to its decision to close a taxi rank on the hospital grounds.
Taxi drivers are campaigning to have the rank reopened, which also was closed due to congestion problems, the hospital spokesman added.
There had been a significant number of “serious incidents” over the last nine to 12 months at the waiting area, including double-parking, illegal parking and consistent blocking of the road and main entrance to the hospital.
He also said there had been many instances of verbal intimidation, racial abuse and anti-social behaviour demonstrated towards hospital staff, particularly to those staff responsible for ensuring safe access to the hospital.
A free-call service, which connects only to Global Taxis, was put in place to replace the rank when it was closed last month.
